Blogs

Delay claims

By William J. Schmalz FAIA, LEED AP, CCCA, Assoc DBIA posted 2 days ago
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Delay claims By Bill Schmalz, FAIA   A CCA white paper, submitted July 22, 2017   Construction delays will almost always result in change order requests, and as architects, we are obligated to review them not only for the requested additional time or money (or both) but also for whether the claim is justified. To determine justification, we need to understand the two categories of delay: inexcusable and excusable. An inexcusable delay is caused by the contractor’s team, which includes subcontractors and vendors. For an inexcusable delay, the contractor receives neither additional time nor additional money. Excusable delays are ...
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Collaboration between architect and contractor

By Paul J Potts posted 2 days ago
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Collaboration between architect and contractor By Paul Potts A CCA white paper, submitted July 24, 2017   Introduction Until the 1970s, architects in the United States were immune to construction lawsuits other than those brought by the owner. This allowed the architect to have a significant role during construction to ensure the design intent was realized and to protect the owner from defective workmanship and deficiencies in products without fear of being sued by the contractor. This immunity broke down when jurists and judges began to question whether it was fair to give architects complete immunity from lawsuits even where personal injury ...
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How to Update Your Home with Minor Improvements

By Miles Wiseman posted 2 days ago
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When most people hear the words home renovations, it immediately brings to mind the loss of thousands of dollars. Now, it is true that most restorations or makeovers are quite expensive. However, you don’t need to empty out your bank account to be able to give your house a new look. With a little bit of creativity and the right pieces, you can give your home an updated appearance. Here are some tips:   Install a Portable Fireplace   Most fireplaces are gigantic features that are expensive to install and difficult to maintain. Fortunately for you, these are not the only ones that are available. There are portable ethanol designs as well. ...
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5 Exciting Benefits of Putting an Outdoor Fountains in Your Yard

By Miles Wiseman posted 4 days ago
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Installing a water fountain in your yard can be one of the best decisions you will make to improve your garden. Not only do fountains provide aesthetic appeal, they also provide a place for you and your family to relax and enjoy the sound of water. Your pets will also love to play and drink from it. If you are considering whether or not you should invest in an garden fountain, here are five benefits that can help you to make a wise decision. 1. An Agent of Relaxation Fountains offer you a place to relax. The soothing sounds of cascading water can serve as an effective agent of relaxation. That's why many outdoor retreat centers use fountains ...
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5 Steps to Add Luxury to Your Home

By Miles Wiseman posted 4 days ago
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You don't have to wait till you go on your annual vacation to experience hotel-style luxury. You can create the same type of environment within your own home. Simply adding Egyptian cotton bed sheets, fluffy pillows, a thick pile carpet, an internal fountain or some new bathroom fixtures can transform your home. Use the following tips to add 5-star luxury to your home. 1. Create a Lavish Bedroom When you want to create hotel-style luxury at home , you should begin with your bedroom. Your bed should be absolutely comfortable. Replace your mattress with a supportive one and add plump pillows. Add Egyptian cotton sheets with the highest thread count ...
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5 Advantages of Adding Indoor Water Fountains to Your Home

By Miles Wiseman posted 4 days ago
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Installing a modern water fountain inside your home is one of the most effective ways to enjoy the pleasant sight and soothing noise of water. With the improved design and aesthetics of most indoor fountains, you now have many options to choose from. If you are still wondering whether you need to install one in your home, here are five important benefits that you should consider. Improved Air Quality The quality of air in your home will affect your health. That is why it has become a major health topic in recent years. You can use a water fountain to enhance the quality of air you breathe because it also works like an air purifier. It produces negative ...
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How to Buy a House With a Home Loan

By Miles Wiseman posted 5 days ago
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Before you buy your dream house, it is important to understand how to find the finance that will enable you to buy the perfect house for you and your family. Although buying a new home takes a considerable amount of time and effort, these four vital steps will enable you to make the process faster and easier. 1. Determine the Value of the Home You Can Afford Most lenders suggest that new home buyers should search for homes that will not cost more than 5 times their annual income. This is based on the assumption that they will make an initial deposit of about 20 percent and that they already have to pay back other loans, like auto financing. However, ...
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Design for disaster: When hurricanes hit home

By Angela C. Brooks FAIA, LEED AP posted 5 days ago
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KEY WEST, FLORIDA IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE IRMA; IMAGE: GETTY On the anniversary of my birth 53 years ago in Tampa, Florida (during Hurricane Dora in 1964), I watch with dread as my home state bears the brunt of Hurricane Irma. Our family has been sailing and boating on the Gulf Coast of Florida for the last 50 years, and we know the water is warm and shallow for miles offshore, a tropical paradise when the weather is calm. We have never experienced a disaster of this magnitude. Protecting human life is of the utmost importance as scientists warn ‘some of these areas will be unrecognizable’. Recently, The Economist published ...
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Choosing House Painting Colors

By Bob Gorman posted 5 days ago
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One of the easiest possible ways to change a home’s appearance is to paint the exterior of the property. However, this does not mean that it is really easy to choose the suitable color. The exact same thing can be said about painting the interior. All that you have to do is go to the home improvement store and check out the paint aisle. There are so many more colors than what most homeowners believe. Combine this with the fact that you have to choose between tools, trays and brushes and all becomes quite overwhelming. The good news is that there are many different tips that can be mentioned and that will help you out. According to Paysons Painting, the ...
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A POE Toolkit for Courthouses

By Erin Persky (Costino) Assoc. AIA posted 5 days ago
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Erin Persky, Associate AIA, CCHP   In conjunction with the American Institute of Architects—Academy of Architecture for Justice Research Committee and a multidisciplinary advisory committee, Jay Farbstein, Erin Persky, and Melissa Farling have developed a Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) “Toolkit” for Courthouses. Over the course of the next five AAJ Journal issues, POE lessons learned and recommendations will be shared based on the information gathered during a pilot POE conducted to test the Toolkit instruments and methodologies. This article will introduce the Toolkit, including the instruments and goals for its use. The Courthouse POE Toolkit is configured ...
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KLA Report: Mentoring and Millennials

By Lorenzo M. Lopez AIA posted 5 days ago
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Lorenzo Lopez, AIA, LEED AP   The AIA’s 2017 Knowledge Leadership Assembly (KLA) was held June 25 th -27th in St. Louis, MO. KLA is a gathering for all of the leaders of Knowledge Communities (KC’s) like the Academy of Architecture for Justice. I was there with the other AAJ leadership group members, as well as about 150 other KC leaders. In addition to allowing time for each KC to plan out their own events, the conference is a means for the AIA to unite different KC’s in shared efforts and push down the AIA’s campaigns to its members. Diversity was the primary theme of a session titled “Implicit Bias” facilitated by Dr. Shirley Davis, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, ...
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4 Major Benefits of Installing a Modern Home Security System

By Miles Wiseman posted 6 days ago
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Installing a new home security system is one of the best ways to keep intruders away from your home. Although you need to invest a substantial amount of money to install and maintain it, the benefits outweigh the cost. Here are some of the reasons why you should install a new security system in your home. 1. Keeps Intruders Away From Your Home The most important reason why you should install a security system is to protect your property and family members from burglars. Security experts believe that a home that has no security or surveillance system is about three times more likely to be burgled than a home with an alarm system. Although some burglars ...
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Seasoned professional profile of Barbara A. Nadel, FAIA

By Kerry Feeney posted 7 days ago
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2002 AAJ Chair, 2001 AIA National Vice President, AIA Edward C. Kemper Award recipient By the AAJ Communications Committee   Personal Information: When did you know you wanted to be an Architect and where did you go to college? BN: My interests were always in art, design and writing. I graduated from Binghamton University (State University of New York) with a Bachelor of Arts in Pre-Architecture. As an art major, I chose an architectural history course to complete the major, and was fascinated by looking at buildings in new ways. I studied at Cornell University School of Architecture for a semester and wanted to pursue it further. ...
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Letter from the Chair – 2017 AAJ Journal Q3

By Kerry Feeney posted 7 days ago
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Letter from the Chair Welcome to our third Journal of 2017!  Summer is ending and it is time to start looking forward to our upcoming conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, October 29-31 st , 2017, where the theme will be Interdisciplinary Justice. To expand on that idea the conference page explains: Justice system research has long been conducted by social and biological scientists. Only more recently, however, has the influence of justice architecture on justice issues been systematically investigated. Increased societal interest in humane criminal justice presents a unique opportunity for collaboration between justice architecture professionals with experts ...
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Beautifully designed Airbnbs in the U.S.: Houston

By Henric Lindholm posted 12 days ago
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Without a doubt, Houston is a leading destination in the South, a place that fascinates through its many attractions. The city (nicknamed – for obvious reasons – the Space City ) has a lot to offer and it’s considered to be a global city , which is a way of acknowledging Houston’s importance in the global economic system. It’s also a major metropolis, filled with tons of cultural events, great places to eat and first-class entertainment. If you’re looking for a place to stay, this Airbnb is perfect for an unforgettable experience. This beautifully renovated home has a lot to offer to anyone deciding to spend their days here. The ...
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Toronto Is Expensive, Water Is Wet

By Miles Wiseman posted 13 days ago
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Move over Vancouver. There’s going to be a new most-expensive city in the country and it doesn’t start with a V. The latest reports show Toronto’s housing bubble is consuming the rental market with no sign of slowing, pushing the average cost of rent up by 30% in the last 6 months. If this trend continues, Toronto will be on its way to usurping the title from Vancity. This is unsurprising to anyone who lives in Toronto. Here, talk of the housing bubble is as pervasive as the song Despacito, the most played YouTube video yet. The rising cost of living as background chatter is akin to sightings of Jay Baruchel , newly appointed chief creative officer ...
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4 Ways to Create a Beautiful Backyard Garden

By Miles Wiseman posted 14 days ago
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Beautiful gardens can enhance our mood, health and well being. The combination of colors, fragrance, shapes and textures of flowers will help you to relax and feel refreshed. Building a nice looking garden in your yard does not have to be a difficult task. With the following tips and ideas, you can apply proven home design and decoration principles to create an attractive garden. 1. Add Flowering Plants Plant a range of vegetables and herbs that produce lovely looking flowers. The splashes of color from these flowers will offer variety and contrast to the green leaves. They may even serve as excellent focal points . Examples of plants you can ...
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4 Simple Ideas to Enhance Your Bedroom's Interior Design

By Miles Wiseman posted 17 days ago
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Your bedroom is a place where you should relax and rest after a hard day's work. But it is not uncommon to see bedrooms cluttered with a lot of items and with strong colors that do not allow the mind to relax and unwind. It is vital to make the atmosphere in your bedroom as soothing and comfortable as possible. The following tips on bedroom decoration and makeovers will help you to achieve that. 1. Improve Your Lighting The type of lighting you have in your bedroom can enhance your mood or dampen your spirit. During the day, you should make the most of natural light. Then add at least two or three light sources depending on the size of your room. In ...
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Essential Design Features to Consider Before Buying Property in Australia

By Miles Wiseman posted 20 days ago
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In Australia, like elsewhere in the world, many people find it difficult to make the right decisions when they either want to buy or sell property . The choices you make can have long life consequences for you and your entire family and so it is imperative to weigh issues regarding the value and the type of property in questions before arriving at a final decision. You do not want to make mistakes when it comes to buying a home, and so to be on the safer side of the transaction you need to enlist the services of property experts. One of the basic requirements you must not ignore if you live in Australia or you want to move there is to compare ...
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Things To Think About Before You Replace An Exterior Door

By Bob Gorman posted 22 days ago
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Most homeowners do not actually think about the exterior door too much but what should be understood by everyone is that this part of the home can hugely enhance the home appeal and overall beauty. Replacing any patio or entry door is something that should be considered but this does not mean that the process is really simple. You do need to be selective and make a decision that is appropriate instead of one that is done in haste. A badly chosen exterior door can instantly ruin home aesthetic appeal. Exterior doors have to suitably complement the home’s overall design , texture, and color. This is when curb appeal is improved, which is a priority in the ...
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